Developer: Bits Laboratory Publisher: Masaya Release: 02/24/95 Genre: Shooter
Cho Aniki was a strange game that earned a reputation for its homoerotic imagery. What was lost in all the hoopla was the fact that it was a good game beyond its questionable themes. The sequel follows along the same lines but ratchets up the debauchery. It would have been easy to belt out some new levels and call it a day. But Ai Cho Aniki makes a few gameplay changes that I do not like which hurts the gameplay overall.
Three years have passed since Idaten and Benten defeated the Emperor Botei to restore peace in the galaxy. But his wife Empress Body Conscious swears revenge and kidnaps Idaten. Adon and Samson step up to be the heroes the galaxy needs and with a little help from Benten maybe they can save the day.
While it may not look it at first glance Ai Cho Aniki is a massive departure from the original in terms of gameplay. You now have a life bar and can sustain three hits before death. Adon (or Samson) are massive sprites and stand upright, presenting a large target. Normally this would be disastrous however you can press a button to perform defensive spin. This move protects you from almost all damage entirely, even boss attacks. To make it even more broken you can hold Button I to spin endlessly if you wish although there are gameplay reasons why you should not. I will get to that in momentarily.
There are no weapons in Ai Cho Aniki and only a single power-up, a health and time extension from Benten. The default attack is a weak homing shot that is slow and there is no rapid fire. Most enemies attack in groups or are resilient making it near worthless. Instead you have a number of different attacks performed using Street Fighter style inputs. Pressing back then forward and attack will throw a long range attack that cuts through enemies. A hadoken motion throws a short range puff of star dust. The death flex damages or outright kills all enemies on screen and is a simple back, forward, down combo. You can even throw glitter above and below although most of the time I did this by accident. The man beam is the most powerful but for the life of me I don’t know how to use it consistently.
This system is certainly unique, I’ll give it that. I can see what they were going for but in practice it is annoying. Having to enter fighting game inputs repeatedly is both tiring and frustrating. The reason it works in fighting games is because using special moves is a strategic choice. Here you need to use them constantly and consistently to play the game properly. Fighting games also generally recognize your button inputs and that is a problem here as well. It is inconsistent and will result in many a cheap hit. If the normal homing shots were stronger or a little faster I think it would have struck a better balance. Instead you end up fighting with the game and have less time to appreciate its absurd content.
Ai Cho Aniki goes all in when it comes to parody. The body building theme is ramped up to eleven with muscle bound fairies, buff gremlins, and even brolic mermen. The enemy designs eschew the cyber organic look of the first title for more realistic enemies but does not suffer for it. It is still just as creative and the parodies are funnier. The statue of Adam is a boss and is a faithful digital recreation until it makes cut noises when hit. The Birth of Venus is also here except it is a man covering his junk who attacks by raining eggplants. You have also never seen a snowman this buff before. The most important thing is that the game does not lean on this stuff to make up for its shortcomings. There is a lot to like here; it is too bad the gameplay gets in the way.
The difficulty is a bit high due to the way the game is set up. Technically you have unlimited lives. However the game runs on a timer and any deaths remove time from the clock. You only get one or two chances to regain some time per stage and it is easy to miss. As I said before you can spin your way to every boss if you feel like it to preserve time but your ending depends on your score. Considering all you get is scrolling text and the game is in Japanese that will not matter to most. So you are left with a game that allows you to bypass its critical mechanic to complete it sooner and never touch it again.
In Closing
Ai Cho Aniki is an acquired taste. At its core the heart of a solid game is still there. But its unique mechanics are not implemented as well as they should be. Even if you do master the controls you are still left with a game that is not as memorable as its predecessor. Honestly I still do not know whether I like it or not. What I will not do is recommend it even though I can see its good points.
